Today the “Sega feat. Hatsune Miku Project” development team (don’t you miss the days when Sega used to call their development teams simpler names, like AM2?) put out the very first Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2 gameplay video.

The video details a new touchscreen control system that’s been added in this sequel, on top of a revamped ABXY control scheme introduced in their first attempt on the 3DS.

I’m digging the new control scheme a lot.

When I picked up a Japanese 3DS sometime last year and began looking through the catelogue (with some help from demoes made available in the Nintendo e-Shop) for games I absolutely needed to have, Hatsune Miku and Future Stars: Project Mirai was not one of them.

In a somewhat unusual example that demonstrates how releasing a demo of a game can actually be counter-intuitive to sales, I was initially interested in picking up Project Mirai but eventually decided it was not for me after playing the Nintendo e-Shop demo for a good 20 minutes or so.

My issue with the game: whenever the indicator on the screen told me to hit the A button, I hit the B button. And vice versa.

Same for X and Y.

At this point I’m so far accustomed to the Xbox 360’s controller layout, where A is on the left side and coloured in green, B is on the right side and painted in red, that I can no longer play games whose entire premise is to hit the right buttons as indicated on the display screen on the traditional (read: backward) Nintendo button control scheme comfortably – unless the game lets you remap the controls, of course.

This is not a problem for me in other rhythm games on the 3DS.

Square Enix’s Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, for instance, I had no problem getting accustomed to. I played the e-Shop demo of that to death, and am quite convinced (without buying the game; the Japanese version is not very readily available here in Singapore) that it is one of the most innovative rhythm games to have come in recent years. I’m guessing it’s due to the touchscreen controls.

And for that reason alone, after watching Project Mirai 2’s first trailer, I am now putting the game back on my radar. Well played, Sega.

Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2 is still a ways off release at this point; there’s no concrete release date yet.

But if you happen to be in Japan right now, you’ll be able to go hands-on with a demo build of the newly-announced 3DS game at both the Nico Nico Chokaigi 2 “super conference” convention this weekend, or a Go! Next 60 Nippon TV Golden Week fair to be held at the television station’s Shiodome headquarters from April 27 to May 6.

Sega also mentions that fans can expect to hear more details about Project Mirai 2 sometime around June.